John Calvin Commentary Joel 1

The word of Jehovah which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. He names his father here; it is therefore probable that he was a well-known man of some celebrity. But who this Pethuel was, everyone is now ignorant. And what the Hebrews hold as a general rule—that a prophet is designated whenever his father’s name is added—appears to me frivolous; and we see how bold they are in devising such comments. When no reason for anything appears to them, they invent some fable and allege it as a divine truth. Therefore, when they are accustomed to trifle in this way, I pay no attention to what they hold as a rule. Yet it is probable that when the Prophets are mentioned as having descended from this or that father, their fathers were men of some note.

Now, what he declared by saying that he delivered the word of the Lord is noteworthy. For he shows that he claimed nothing for himself as an individual, as if he wished to rule by his own judgment and subject others to his own fancies, but that he relates only what he had received from the Lord.

And since the Prophets claimed no authority for themselves, except insofar as they faithfully executed the office divinely committed to them and delivered, as it were, from hand to hand what the Lord commanded, we may therefore be assured that no human doctrines ought to be admitted into the Church.

Why? Because to the extent that men trust in themselves, they detract from the authority of God. This preface, then, which almost all the Prophets use, ought to be noticed: namely, that they brought nothing of their own or according to their own judgment, but that they were faithful dispensers of the truth entrusted to them by God.

And the word is said to have come to Joel; not that God intended that he alone should be His disciple, but because He deposited this treasure with him, so that he might be His minister to the whole people. Paul also says the same thing: that to the ministers of the Gospel was committed a message for Christ, or in Christ’s name, to reconcile men to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). And in another place he says, He has deposited with us this treasure as in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). We now understand why Joel says that the word of the Lord was delivered to him: it was not so that he might be the only disciple, but as some teacher was necessary, Joel was chosen, and the Lord committed this office to him. Then the word of God indeed belongs indiscriminately to all; and yet it is committed to Prophets and other teachers, for they are, so to speak, trustees (depositarii—depositories).

As to the verb היה eie, there is no need of philosophizing so acutely as Jerome does: “How was the word of the Lord made?” For he feared that Christ might be said to be made, as He is the word of the Lord. These are the most puerile trifles. He could not, however, get rid of the difficulty in any other way than by saying that the word is said to be made with respect to man whom God addresses, and not with respect to God Himself. All this, as you must see, is childish. For the Prophet says here only that the word of the Lord was sent to him; that is, that the Lord employed him as His messenger to the whole people. But after having shown that he was a fit minister of God, being furnished with His word, he speaks authoritatively, for he represented the person of God.

We now see what lawful authority ought to be in force in the Church, which we ought to obey without dispute, and to which all ought to submit. This authority exists only when God Himself speaks through men, and the Holy Spirit employs them as His instruments. For the Prophet does not bring forward any empty title; he does not say that he is a high priest of the tribe of Levi, or of the first order, or of the family of Aaron. He alleges no such thing but says that the word of God was deposited with him. Whoever, then, demands to be heard in the Church must necessarily and truly prove that he is a preacher of God’s word; and he must not bring his own devices, nor blend with the word anything that proceeds from the judgment of his own flesh.

But first, the Prophet reproves the Jews for being so stupid as not to consider that they were chastised by the hand of God, though this was quite evident. Therefore, in my judgment, those who think that punishments are denounced here which were still suspended pervert the Prophet's meaning, for they transfer all these things to a future time. But I distinguish between this reproof and the denunciations that follow later. Here, then, the Prophet reproaches the Jews that, after being so severely struck, they did not gain wisdom; and yet even fools, when the rod is applied to their backs, know that they are punished. Since, then, the Jews were so stupid that even when chastised they did not understand that they had to do with God, the Prophet justly reproves this madness. He says, "Hear," and also "ye old men; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land, and declare this to your children." But I will postpone the consideration of this passage until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as almost the whole world gives such free rein to their licentiousness that they do not hesitate either to despise or to regard as of no value Your sacred word—Grant, O Lord, that we may always retain such reverence as is justly due to it and to Your holy oracles. May we be so moved whenever You deign to address us that, being truly humbled, we may be raised up by faith to heaven and by hope gradually attain that glory which is still hidden from us. And may we at the same time so submissively restrain ourselves as to make it our whole wisdom to obey You and to serve You, until You gather us into Your kingdom, where we shall be partakers of Your glory, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

Hear this, ye old men; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: has this been in your days, and in the days of your fathers? This declare to your children and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation: the residue of the locust has the chafer eaten, and the residue of the chafer has the cankerworm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm has the caterpillar eaten. In the last lecture, I already mentioned what I think of this passage of the Prophet.

Some think that a future punishment is denounced, but the context sufficiently proves that they mistake and pervert the real meaning of the Prophet. For, on the contrary, he here reproves the hardness of the people—that they did not feel their plagues. And as men are not easily moved by God’s judgments, the Prophet here declares that God had executed such vengeance as could not be regarded otherwise than miraculous. It is as though he said, “God often punishes men, and they ought to be attentive as soon as He raises His finger. But common punishments usually go unheeded; men soon forget those punishments to which they have been accustomed. God has, however, treated you in an unusual manner, having openly, as it were, put forth His hand from heaven and brought on you punishments nothing less than miraculous. You must then be more than stupid if you do not perceive that you are struck by God’s hand.”

This is the true meaning of the Prophet and may be easily gathered from the words.

Hear, ye old men, he says. He expressly addresses the old because experience teaches men much; and the old, when they see anything new or unusual, must know that it is not according to the ordinary course of things. He who has passed his fiftieth or sixtieth year and sees something new happening which he had never thought of, doubtless acknowledges it as the unusual work of God.

This is the reason why the Prophet here directs his discourse to the old, as if he said, “I will not terrify you about nothing; but let the old hear, who have been accustomed for many years to many revolutions. Let them now answer me, whether in their whole life, which has been an age on the earth, they have seen any such thing?” We now perceive the Prophet’s design, for he intended to awaken the Jews so that they might understand that God had put forth His hand from heaven, and that it was impossible to ascribe what they had seen with their eyes to chance or to earthly causes, but that it was a miracle.

And his object was to make the Jews finally ashamed of their folly in not having until now been attentive to God’s punishments, and in having always flattered themselves, as if God slept in heaven, when yet He so violently thundered against them and intended by an extraordinary course to move them, so that they might at last perceive that they were summoned to judgment.

He later adds, And all ye inhabitants of the land. Had the Prophet addressed only the old, some might seize on some pretext for their ignorance; therefore, he addressed all from the least to the greatest. This he did so that the young might not exempt themselves from blame in proceeding in their obstinacy and in thus mocking God when He called them to repentance.

Hear, he says, all ye inhabitants of the land; has this been in your days or in the days of your fathers? He says first, "Has such a thing been in your days?" For doubtless, what happens rarely deserves greater consideration. It is indeed true that foolish men are blind to the daily works of God; for example, God’s favor in making His sun rise daily is little thought of by us. This happens through our ingratitude.

But our ingratitude is doubled, and is much more base and less excusable, when the Lord works in an unusual manner, and we still with closed eyes overlook what ought to be deemed a miracle. This dullness the Prophet now reproves. "Has such a thing," he says, "happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? You can recall to mind what your fathers have told you. It is certain that for two ages no such thing has happened. Your torpidity, then, is extreme, since you neglect this judgment of God, which from its very rareness ought to have awakened your minds."

He then adds, Tell it to your children, your children to their children, their children to the next generation. In this verse, the Prophet shows that the matter deserved to be remembered and was not to be despised by posterity, even for many generations. It now appears quite clear that the Prophet does not threaten what was to come, as some interpreters think (which would have been puerile). On the contrary, he here expostulates with the Jews because they were so slothful and tardy in considering God’s judgments, especially as it was a remarkable instance when God did not employ usual means but roused and, as it were, terrified men by prodigies.

Of this then tell (for עליה olie means nothing other than ‘tell or declare this thing to your children’), and further, your children to their children. When anything new happens, it may be that we are at first moved with some wonder, but our feeling soon vanishes with the novelty, and we disregard what at first caused great astonishment.

But the Prophet here showed that such was the judgment of God of which he speaks, that it ought not to have been overlooked, no, not even by posterity. Let your children, he says, declare it to those after them, and their children to the fourth generation; it was to be always remembered.

He adds what that judgment was: that the hope of food had disappointed them for many years. It often happened, we know, that locusts devoured the standing grain; and then the chafers and the palmer worms did the same. These were ordinary events. But when one devastation happened, and another followed, and there was no end—when there had been four barren years suddenly produced by insects, which devoured the growth of the earth—this was certainly unusual.

Therefore, the Prophet says that this could not have been chance, for God intended to show the Jews some extraordinary portent, so that even against their will they might observe His hand. When anything trifling happens, if it is rare, it will strike the attention of men, for we often see that the world makes a great noise about frivolous things.

“But this wonder,” says the Prophet, “ought to have produced an effect on you. What then will you do, since you are starving, and the causes are evident? For God has cursed your land and brought these insects, which have consumed your food before your eyes. Since it is so, it is surely the time for you to repent; and you have until now been very regardless, having overlooked God’s judgments, which have been so remarkable and so memorable.”

The Prophet adds this verse to amplify his point, for when God sees men either contemptuously laughing at or disregarding His judgments, He derides them. The Prophet now adopts this method. He says, Ye drunkards, awake, and weep and howl. In these words, he addresses, on the subject at hand, those who had willfully closed their eyes to such manifest judgments.

The Jews had become torpid and had covered themselves, as it were, with hardness. It was then necessary to draw them out, as if by force, into the light. But the Prophet accosts the drunkards by name, and it is probable that this vice was then very common among the people.

However that may be, the Prophet, by mentioning this instance, shows more convincingly that there was no excuse for ignoring these matters, and that the Jews could not justify their indifference if they failed to take notice. For even the drunkards, who had degenerated from a human state, themselves felt the calamity, because the wine had been cut off from their mouth.

This expression of the Prophet, Awake, should also be noticed. For the drunkards, even while awake, are asleep, and also spend a great portion of their time in sleep. The Prophet had this in mind: that men, though not endowed with great knowledge, but even lacking common sense, could no longer flatter themselves. For even the drunkards, who had completely suffocated their senses and had thus become estranged in their minds, still perceived God’s judgment. Though drowsiness held them bound, they were still constrained to awaken at such a manifest punishment.

What then does this ignorance mean, when you do not see that you are smitten by God’s hand?

To the same purpose are the words, Weep and howl. Drunkards, on the contrary, give themselves up to mirth and intemperately indulge themselves. There is nothing more difficult than to make them feel sorrow, for wine so infatuates their senses that they continue to laugh in the greatest calamities.

But the Prophet says, Weep and howl, ye drunkards! What then should sober men do?

He then adds, Cut off is the wine from your mouth. He does not say, “The use of wine is taken away from you;” but he says, from your mouth. Though no one should think of vineyards, wine cellars, or cups, they shall be forced, willing or unwilling, to feel God’s judgment in their mouth and in their lips.

This is what the Prophet means. We then see how much he intensifies what he had said before, and we must remember that his object was to strike shame into the people, who had become so torpid with regard to God’s judgments.

As for the word עסיס osis, some render it new wine. עסס osas means to press; and hence עסיס osis is properly the wine that is pressed in the wine vat. New wine is not what is drawn from the bottle, but what is pressed out, as it were, by force. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, includes here by this term every sort of wine. Let us go on.

I repeat, I do not approve of what some think, that punishment not yet inflicted is proclaimed here against the people. On the contrary, in my view, the Prophet records another judgment of God to show that God had not only warned the Jews of their sins in one way, so that He might restore them to a right mind, but that He had tried all means to bring them to the right way, though they proved to be irreclaimable.

After having spoken of the barrenness of the fields and of other calamities, he now adds that the Jews had been visited with war. Surely famine should have touched them, especially when they saw that evils following evils had happened for several years, contrary to the normal course of events, so that they could not be attributed to chance.

But when God brought war upon them, when they were already worn out by famine, must they not have been worse than insane to have remained stupefied by God’s judgments and not repented? So the Prophet's meaning is that God had tried by every means possible to see if the Jews were healable and had given them every opportunity to repent, but they were completely perverse and untamable.

Then he says, Verily a nation came up. The particle ki is not to be taken as causative, but only as explanatory: Verily, or surely, he says, a nation came up. An inference is also not out of place if it is drawn from the beginning of the verse: ‘Hear, you old men, and tell your children;’ what shall we tell? Even this: that a nation, etc. But in this form also, ki would be exegetical, and the sense would be the same. So much for the meaning of the passage.

A nation, then, came up over my land. God here justly claims the land of Canaan as His own heritage, and does so intentionally, so that the Jews might more clearly know that He was angry with them. For their condition would not have been worse than that of other nations if God had not resolved to punish them for their sins.

There is here then an implied comparison between Judea and other countries, as if the Prophet said, “How is it that your land is wasted by wars and many other calamities, while other countries are at rest? This land is no doubt sacred to God, for He has chosen it for Himself, so that He might rule in it; He has His own habitation here. It must then be that there is some cause for God’s wrath, as your land is so miserably wasted, while other lands enjoy tranquillity.” We now understand what the Prophet means.

A nation, he says, came up upon my land, and what then? God could surely have prevented this; He could have defended His own land, of which He was the keeper and which was under His protection. How then did it happen that enemies inundated this land with impunity, marching into it and utterly laying it waste, unless it had been forsaken by the Lord Himself?

A nation, he says, came up upon my land, strong and without number; and further, who had the teeth of a lion, the jaw-bones of a young lion. The nations had no strength that God could not have broken down in an instant, nor did He need mighty auxiliaries, for He could with only a nod have reduced to nothing whatever men might have attempted. Therefore, when the Assyrians so impetuously assailed the Jews, they were necessarily exposed to the malice of their enemies, for they were unworthy of being protected, as previously, by God's hand.

He afterwards adds that his vine had been exposed to desolation and waste, his fig-tree to the stripping of the bark. God is not speaking here of His own vine, as in some other places where He designates His Church by this term; but He calls everything on earth His own, just as He calls the whole race of Abraham His children. He thus reproaches the Jews for having brought such wretchedness upon themselves through their own fault. For they would never have been plundered by their enemies if God, who was accustomed to defend them, had not previously rejected them. There was nothing in their land that He did not claim as His own; as He had chosen the people, so He had consecrated the land to Himself. Whatever, then, existed in Judea was, as it were, sacred to God. Now when both the vines and the fig trees were exposed to the depredations of the unbelievers, it was certain that God no longer ruled there. How so? Simply because the Jews had expelled Him.

He later expands on the same subject. For what follows, By denuding he has denuded it and cast it away, is not merely a narrative. The Prophet here is not simply declaring what had taken place; but, as we have already said, brings forward more proof and tries to awaken the drowsy senses of the people, indeed, to arouse them from the lethargy that had seized all their minds. This is why he uses so many expressions in his teaching. This is the reason he says that the vine and the fig tree had been denuded, the leaves taken away, and the branches made bare and white, so that neither produce nor growth remained.

Many interpreters connect these three verses with the former ones, as if the Prophet were now expressing what he had previously said about the palmerworm, the chafer, and the locust. For they think that he spoke allegorically when he said that all the fruits of the land had been consumed by the locusts and the chafers. They therefore add that these locusts, or chafers, or palmerworms were the Assyrians, as well as the Persians, the Greeks (that is, Alexander of Macedon), and the Romans. But this is an entirely strained view, so there is no need for a long argument. Anyone can easily perceive that the Prophet is mentioning another kind of punishment, so that he might in every way make the Jews inexcusable, who were not roused by such multiplied judgments but still remained obstinate in their vices.

The Prophet now addresses the whole land. Lament, he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow whose husband, whom she married when young, is dead. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when an older person marries an elderly woman. This is the reason the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to portray the heaviest lamentation. Thus he says, “The Jews surely ought not to be affected by so many calamities any differently than a widow who has lost her husband—a man who died young, not having reached maturity, but in the flower of his age.” Just as such widows feel their loss bitterly, so the Prophet has used their case as an illustration.

The Hebrews often call a husband בעל bol, because he is the lord of his wife and has her under his protection. Literally it is, For the lord of her youth; and this is why they also called their idols בעלים bolim, as though they were their patrons, as we have often said in our commentary on the Prophet Hosea.

In summary, the Jews could not have remained unconcerned without being devoid of all reason and discernment, for they were forced, willing or unwilling, to feel a most grievous calamity. It is a monstrous thing when a widow, losing her husband while still young, refrains from mourning. So now, since God had afflicted his land with so many evils, he wished to bring on them, as it were, the grief of widowhood.

Here, in other words, the Prophet paints the calamity. For, as has been said, we see how great is the slowness of people to discern God’s judgments; and the Jews, we know, were not more attentive to them than we are now.

It was, therefore, necessary to prick them with various goads, as the Prophet now does, as if he were saying:

“If you are not now concerned about the lack of food, if you do not even consider what the very drunkards are forced to feel—who do not perceive the evil at a distance, but taste it on their lips—if all these things are of no importance to you, do at least look at the temple of God, which is now lacking its usual services. For through the barrenness of your fields, through so great a scarcity, neither bread nor wine is offered.

“Since, then, you see that the worship of God has ceased, how is it that you yourselves still remain? Why is it that you do not perceive that God’s fury is kindled against you? For surely, unless God had been most grievously offended, He would at least have had some regard for His own worship; He would not have allowed His temple to remain without sacrifices.”

The Jews, we know, daily poured their libations and offered meat-offerings. When, therefore, Joel mentions מנחה meneche and libation, he undoubtedly meant to show that the worship of God was nearly abolished. But God would never have permitted such a thing, unless He had been most grievously offended by the sins of humankind. Hence the indifference, or rather the stupidity of the people, is more clearly proved, since they did not perceive the signs of God’s wrath made evident even in the very temple.